Weapons

“honey look outside. look what they did to the yard.” saw this opening night in the huge imax theater at the universal citywalk in los angeles. me and non-linear storytelling in film are like this: 🤞. zach cregger has crafted a film that is so good i understand why jordan peele was so pissed monkeypaw productions missed out on this script. witnessing a seemingly unsolvable mystery from varying perspectives works so well here and each person serves as a puzzle piece is discovering the truth of why all the children left their homes at 2:17 a.m. coming off of the sinister yet strangely comedic at times, barbarian, director zach cregger takes what he learned and doubles down on everything and just does it better. uneasiness and tension are constantly being built and developed and the weirdness of the horrors makes you laugh a ton. these laughs aren’t because it is funny, rather out of shock and sheer ridiculousness (complimentary). as for the structure of the film, it is divided into chapters. each chapter is titled after the primary perspective of said chapter. the majority of the film follows school teacher, justine, mourning father, archer, and flawed cop, paul. each character has a connection to the disappearance of the children and everything begins to connect right as the third act kicks the film into full gear. coming off the heels of a standout supporting role in the fantastic four: first steps, julia garner is absolutely brilliant as justine in this film. being the teacher of the missing students takes a heavy toll on her professional life and more importantly, her personal life. her life is messy and very human and all it takes is an unfortunate tragedy in her vicinity to warrant harassment and guilt from those around her. josh brolin is great as well in this film playing archer, a man whose son was one of the children who disappeared. haunted by both his grief and regret towards his son, it drives him to search for answers by any means necessary. alden ehrenreich plays the nonchalant and corrupt policeman, paul, really well and his character definitely got the most chuckles out of me during the film. his involvement is just another piece of the web of character interactions that all lead to the central revelation. and i think that is what i appreciated the most about this film. it sets up all its chess pieces and makes a move that is logically sound and doesn’t feel like a rug pull. so many times horror/thriller films have twist villains and grand reveals that only slightly amuse or surprise. weapons chooses to build up to its climax and just show and not tell. but then there is also marcus (wong) and james (abrams) and gladys (madigan) and alex (christopher) who all give great performances as well. you know you have a banger on your hands when you can remember each character’s name within the ensemble. i need to see who the cinematographer was for this film because they ate this up for real. tight spaces felt so expansive and frantic and whether it was grocery aisles or bedroom hallways, i was always on the edge of my seat. lots of subtle homages (the shining) and a clear admiration for the genre and i wholeheartedly think that this is a film most people can find enjoyment in. oh my god i haven’t even talked about the violence and scares. i really want to keep this spoiler-free as going in blind is highly recommended but a certain head-butting scene and quite literally the entire third act are incredible. at several points i had my hand up to my mouth in shock. i don’t really know what else to say. this film lived up to all the hype and then some and delivered a film that felt designed with me in mind. my theater was roaring in fear and laughter and i expect most theaters will be very similar. irresistibly entertaining and a must-watch.